Google, the socially conscious internet search engine which could seemingly do no wrong, has owned up to a 'big mistake' in its latest online venture. The blunder, affecting Google's new online video store, comes at the end of the most difficult week in the company's short history, as it faced worldwide criticism for bowing to government censorship of its new search engine in China.Marissa Mayer, a company vice-president, has admitted that the new Google Video store had suffered from a poor design which made it difficult to access popular TV shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the reality show Survivor'We made a big mistake,' Mayer said. 'You can't come out and launch a product like Google Video and say CSI and Survivor are there if they're not on the home page.' She added that the home page had been changed to make it easier to find clips, and that the response to Google Video had been 'absolutely fantastic'.... http://observer.guardian.co.uk

The imminent release of hundreds of prisoners by the Iraqi authorities has raised hopes for the safe release of British hostage Norman Kember.A video of the 74-year-old peace campaigner and three other hostages was shown on Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera yesterday with final demands from his kidnappers. The footage, dated 21 January, showed the men, seized in Baghdad last year, looking dishevelled and grim.An al-Jazeera newsreader said the kidnappers, the little known Swords of Righteous Brigade, had issued a statement with the tape saying it was the 'last chance' for the American and Iraqi authorities to 'release all Iraqi prisoners in return for freeing the hostages, otherwise their fate will be death'.Anas Altikriti, the envoy dispatched by the Muslim Association of Britain to Iraq last year to co-ordinate appeals for Kember's release, said the fact the men were still alive was a 'huge relief'....http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1697453,00.html

When Botswana first offered free AIDS treatment, health authorities in one of the world's most infected countries braced for a rush of patients. It did not happen. It turned out that most people were so afraid of the deadly disease, and the frequent social ostracism, that they did not want to know if they were infected.That reluctance to seek help in one of the few African nations able to provide it prompted a radical rethinking of how testing is done here. Now, HIV tests are offered as a part of any medical visit.In most places, patients are left to ask for a test themselves, then put through extensive counseling to prepare them in case HIV infection is found. But despite decades of education campaigns, the World Health Organization estimates less than 10% of infected people in the African countries at the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic realize they have the virus....http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-01-28-hiv-testing_x.htm?csp=34

Pope Benedict signalled a dramatic break with the past yesterday when he acknowledged the plight of divorcees who are banned from taking communion after remarriage and appealed to a Vatican tribunal to issue 'rapid' rulings on annulment requests.It was the second time this week that the newly elected Pope has displayed strong liberal leanings, confounding his critics and the world's Catholics and showing another side to his previously stern image, which has been unfavourably compared with his predecessor, John Paul II. On Wed his long-awaited first encyclical a message to the 1.1 billion members of the Roman Catholic church was a warm meditation on the power of love and was greeted with astonishment and relief by senior Catholics.In Rome yesterday he directly addressed a central tenet of Catholic doctrine that has caused distress to many followers of the church, which states that remarried divorcees are regarded as being in a permanent state of sin and cannot receive communion...http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1697457,00.html

The eldest daughter of former Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet has been detained, after arriving back in Chile to face tax evasion charges. Lucia Pinochet, 60, was served notice of the charges that also include passport fraud as she returned from a bid to seek political asylum in the US. She gave up after being detained in Washington and flew home via Argentina. She is one of five members of Gen Pinochet's family to be charged with tax evasion - but denies wrongdoing. Ms Pinochet was detained when she arrived back in Chile's capital, Santiago, on Saturday. A Chilean judge had issued an international warrant for her arrest and boarded her plane to inform her of the indictments. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4658168.stm

The word itself is cringe-inducing: inquisition.Put a historical and religious spin on it, and it yields a reign of terror that lasted for more than 600 years, a campaign by the Roman Catholic Church of enforced orthodoxy that let loose persecution, dread and death on untold thousands accused of heresy.Those lucky enough to have escaped being burned or boiled alive were nonetheless ruined through imprisonment and confiscation of property. Whole populations were driven from their homelands in the name of piety and purity.The Inquisition — not limited to Spain as many might believe — was horrible and cruel and shatteringly un-Christian. It earned the Catholic Church a black eye that is remembered to this day.It also makes for great television....http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1138191107984&call_pageid=970599119419